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Vertical and Temporal Patterns of Biodiversity of Fruit-Feeding Butterflies in a Tropical Forest in Uganda

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Abstract

Quick surveys are often used by conservation biologists to assess biodiversity. In tropical forests, fruit-feeding butterflies are a convenient indicator group because they can be readily trapped and are comparatively easy to identify. However, studies carried out in Costa Rica and Ecuador have revealed that long-term sampling is needed to estimate biodiversity accurately. Furthermore, almost half of the biodiversity of fruit-feeding butterflies in the neotropics was found to be in the canopy. Short term sampling in the understory can, therefore, lead to inaccurate estimates of species richness and worse, to poorly informed conservation decisions. Comparable to the studies in South America, we performed a long-term trapping study of the same guild of butterflies in the understory and canopy of Kibale Forest in Uganda, to describe temporal and vertical patterns of biodiversity. We caught 32,308 individuals of 94 species over three years. About 14% of these species could be categorized as canopy specialists and 68% as understory specialists. Temporal variation was extensive and did not follow a clear seasonal pattern. This is the first study in an African forest with continuous sampling of fruit-feeding butterflies over multiple years and in both canopy and understory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biology, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9516, 2300, RA, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Freerk Molleman, Arjan Kop, Paul M. Brakefield & Bas J. Zwaan

  2. Department of Biological Sciences, University of New Orleans, 2000 Lake Shore Drive, New Orleans, LA, 70148, USA

    Philip J. De vries

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  1. Freerk Molleman
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  2. Arjan Kop
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  3. Paul M. Brakefield
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  4. Philip J. De vries
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  5. Bas J. Zwaan
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Correspondence to Freerk Molleman.

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Molleman, F., Kop, A., Brakefield, P.M. et al. Vertical and Temporal Patterns of Biodiversity of Fruit-Feeding Butterflies in a Tropical Forest in Uganda. Biodivers Conserv 15, 107–121 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-004-3955-y

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